Modelled after the Japanese show "Iron Chef", "Iron Chef America" is part cooking show, part game show, and part spectacle. In each episode, one of the resident Iron Chefs is challenged by another renowned chef. Both must create a series of dishes based on a theme ingredient.

Unlike the previous attempt at importing this format, "Iron Chef USA", "Iron Chef America" is relatively faithful to the original show. Food is taken very seriously and the "Kitchen Stadium" is a large television studio with no cheering and shouting audience. Both the challenging chefs and the Iron Chefs seem to genuinely care about winning or losing. It also maintains the fiction fo the fabled Chairman who supposedly created Kitchen Stadium for the purpose of staging epic culinary battles; the Chairman of Iron Chef America (Mark Dacascos) is supposed to be the nephew of the original Chairman Kaga.

The Iron Chefs are Food Network regulars Bobby Flay, Mario Battali, Masaharu Morimoto (who was also an Iron Chef on the original series), and the first ever female Iron Chef, the beautiful, talented and sexy Cat Cora.

Alton Brown who is the host of his own series "Good Eats" provides the expert commentary.